Coconut Paleo Bread

I don't consider myself a bread person, but every now and again I admit to a small hankering for an edible vessel for getting butter, nut butter, etc. into my mouth. I can across this simplest of simple recipes the other day which was just too easy not to try. It's from a neat little site called chocolate & carrots.


Ingredients

• 1 C coconut flour
• 1/4 C coconut milk
• 1/2 C coconut oil (or unsalted softened butter)
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 t salt

Directions

•  Preheat the oven to 350°
• Mix all ingredients together
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

I like this kind of simple, base recipe (not to mention low histamine). It'll be easy to expand/adapt by adding just about anything... ground flax seed, rosemary, honey, who knows. 

Not too bad toasted and slathered in butter.

Enough is enough

After a few recent skin flare-ups, I've decided to dial the low histamine thing up a notch. Although I admit the low histamine diet has improved my skin overall, I still can't help but feel my skin should be better than it is. This is very frustrating.

So, I've decided to commit to my own short list of foods that I will eat - and only eat - for the next 30 days. A more extreme Whole30 of sorts. Despite being quite disciplined with my eating (if I do say so), I have been turning to a few "treats" of late. These "extras" include cottage cheese, nuts, Jennie's Macaroons, and sweet potato chips. None of these things are actually in the histamine no-go category, but I have reason to wonder if they aren't hampering my progress.

And so, as of Saturday, October 22, I am only eating from the following list of foods. That's it. Nothing else. No exceptions. (I have to do it, since I've now declared it to the Internet.)

FOOD LIST

Protein 

• Beef
• Chicken (less so)
• Pork
• Eggs (2 max/day) 

Fat

• Coconut oil/milk/flakes
• Olive oil
• Butter

Carbs

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Brussels sprouts
• Sweet potato
• Turnip
• Zucchini
• Carrots 
• Parsnips
• Asparagus
• Apples

Note: Other veggies permitted, except known histamine-generators (spinach, pumpkin, eggplant, tomato in all its delicious forms, sauerkraut)

Other

• Salt
• Pepper
• Ground cilantro

On day three of hard-core low histamine, I was greeted with a fairly severe morning flare -up. I have reason to believe it may have been stress induced.

So I'm keeping a record of my skin condition, as well as a food log (which is comprised of the foods listed see above).  I'll update here as often as manageable, including pictures, my food log perhaps and my overall progress. My hope is that after 30 days of (*sigh* even more) strictly eating a low histamine diet I'll have eliminated virtually all of the eczema. Wish me luck.

Citrus Pound Cake

I came across a version of this tasty little cake recipe here. I've removed the cinnamon (for histamine reasons), plus made a couple other small adjustments. I've made it a few times now - most recently for a bake sale. At which is sold early I might add :-)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 C coconut milk
• 1/2 C honey
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/4 t coconut extract
• 1/4 t orange extract
• 1 C coconut flour
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t sea salt
• Coconut oil

Directions

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Beat the eggs with the coconut milk, honey and extracts, until smooth. 
• Add the coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until a smooth batter forms.
• Grease a loaf pan with coconut oil, and sprinkle with some coconut flour to lightly coat pan. 
• Pour batter into the loaf pan. 
• Bake for about about 60 minutes, until pound cake a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Allow the pound cake to cool before removing it from the pan.

What does a low-histamine-paleo diet look like?

My last post was a walk down food memory lane where I recalled the many common paleo foods I once loved with reckless abandon. Such a post might leave you wondering "what exactly can she eat?" Below are some of the low histamine dishes I enjoy these days...

Breakfast smoothie: blueberries, coconut milk, hemp protein, omega 3 oil, multi-vitamin, ground flax seed.

Coffee with whipping cream.

Burger and butternut squash.

Flank steak, parsnips, carrots and brussel sprouts.

Pork chop, cauli-carrot puree.

Roast pork.

Burger, sweet potato.

Burger, carrots, broccoli.

Roast pork, broccoli, yellow squash, brussel sprouts.

Funny thing is, even with all these histamine-related restrictions and skin troubles, I'm still committed to the paleo lifestyle (though occasionally when I'm having a skin flare-up I wonder why). The food above may seem rather bland and/or repetitive, but I say delicious.